WEBVTT - Drone Strikes in Rojava 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:09.240 Also Media. 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:12.440 Greetings podcast Into theis. It's me James, a man who 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:18.160 has commenced his one man war against cutter airlines, who 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.680 detained me against my will for most of the last 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.640 two days in a very small part of a very 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.680 big plane. See there's a there's. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:32.959 A You know, airlines from Middle Eastern countries are are 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.600 usually like the best airlines are like Royal Jordanian and 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.600 the Air Immirates. If it's if it's owned by a king, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.959 it's usually a safe bet. But but cutter airways, that's 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.920 what they say about England breaks that mold, proudly breaks 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.800 that mold. Yeah, yeah, fuck me. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.240 One of the one of the less pleasant experiences available 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.080 to a human being that doesn't end in death is 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.200 a thirty six hour trip from Kingston to now in California, 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:02.960 which see I've just enjoyed. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.960 I always enjoyed those trips back from Air Emirates because 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.600 when you're on the Air Emirates flight, if you ask 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:14.720 the steward or whatever to you, if you tell him, hey, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.200 I would like eight shots of vodka and four glasses 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.039 of orange juice, He'll just give it to you, like, 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.959 not even a question, not even a question. And so 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.240 have I vomited on a couple of Air Emirates flights? 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:27.559 Yes? 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:34.040 Is it always a good time? Probably you don't remember. No, No, yeah, 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:34.480 I see. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.800 I was at the point of frustration where like and 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:41.000 I'm as an english Man, if if I've become frustrated 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.679 and drunk, then my instinct is to fight everyone or 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.120 throw bottles, and I thought that would probably result in 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:53.040 further detention, so decided against decided against becoming bladdered. Or 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.280 it could have started singing. I guess that's the other 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.120 option available to me that fits my culture. Yeah, so 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.560 we're not here to talk about things that I like 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.360 to do in my free time, as much as I 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.240 would love that, but we are here to talk about 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.359 things that I have been seeing in my worktime. When 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.559 I was traveling to Kurdistan last couple of weeks. Kurdistan, 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:18.720 for people who are not familiar, is a big area, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.680 the area where Kurdish people live, and it spans several countries. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.800 The areas I went, we're in Iraq and in Syria 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.400 or in that it's not really in I guess Syrian 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.280 regime territory. But if you look on the. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.480 Mout northeast Syria known as Rojava. The other two parts 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.640 that are generally considered part of Kurdistan are a chunk, 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.000 big chunk of southern Iran and also a big chunk 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:42.520 of southern Turkey. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.080 Yeah, so Java just means west. I think Roja lat 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:51.239 is east eastern Kurdistan. So yeah, I've spent the last 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.600 several last week and change in that area. And while 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.680 I was there, the Turkish state began and a massive 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.880 drone bombing campaign, which is what we are gathered here 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.480 today to discuss. So for people who are not familiar, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.640 it's four years almost to this drone bombing campaign started 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.520 almost four years to the day since Turkey's invasion of 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.480 what they call the M four Strip. So that's the 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.480 area around Surakania and tell Abayad, we've talked about that 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.079 before on the Podka, So if you want to know 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.160 more about that, you can go back and listen to it. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.680 It's the area along the border, one of the areas 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:37.120 on the border between Turkey and Syria. And as people 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.920 will know, Syria is a country that has had a 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.800 long and terrible civil war, which they've heard about in 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.000 lots of episodes, right, and we're not talking about that today, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.800 so much as we're talking about the Turkish state's use 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.600 of drones to bomb, what people generally in this country 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.720 will know as for a Java, right, So just to 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.680 give them statistics off the top, this is the fourth 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.040 year in a row of aggression at this time of year, right, 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.640 So there have been two land attacks I think Operation 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:14.000 Olive Branch and Operation with someone called peace Spring, and 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.320 then two years the last two years there have been 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.480 drone strikes at this time of year, this time of year, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.040 it seems very hard not to conclude that these are 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.080 attempts to destroy civilian infrastructure and make it very hard 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.320 for people in the cold months of the year. So 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.200 right now, around two million people in north east Syria 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.000 are going to be without power and without water. And 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.159 I experienced some of that when I was there, and 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.440 the places I stayed will run off generators, so you'd 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.320 have like intermittent power, you'd have power from it and 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.400 then they'd put some petrum in the generator and the 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.240 power will go down, or the generator would have a 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.479 little tantrum and the power would go down. But generally 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.440 I had a lot better access to power that some 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.320 people had a lot better access to water. So as 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.200 I was traveling around, I noticed some people didn't have 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.279 access to to like running water, right they can't turn 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.360 on the tap and get water. Obviously that's a massive problem. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.640 It's something I think like as people are listening to this, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.479 Israel is also bombing the shit out of Gaza, the 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.680 whole of the Gaza Strip, and the US recently intervened 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.159 to ensure that people there have access to water, and 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.919 they have done very little in the case of protecting 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.560 people in North and East Syria. Right. So across this 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.040 drone campaign, forty eight people have died, and in the 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.880 worst of I guess the highest casualty of producing strike 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.680 was one that happened while I was there, twenty nine 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.320 internal security forces. Sometimes you'll see it translated as police, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:48.240 but I don't think that's quite accurate, like that they 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.120 don't do cop shit, Like they're not there to you know, 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.640 like arrescue for parking in the wrong place, or and 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.680 they do the things that cops do. They're there largely 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:02.880 as like internal security to the various non state armed 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:04.640 groups that are in the area and state armed groups. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.360 I guess that they're operating in the area that would 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.360 make things dangerous for people living there. So these particular 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:14.200 essays were anti narcotics essays. And again why I'm grounding 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:15.800 this and what they do is because they're not the 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.800 people who like send you to jail for the rest 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.119 of your life for like having an ounce of weed. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.680 They're the people whose job is to prevent the trading 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.400 cap to gone will people know what people know what 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:28.080 captagon is. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.960 Absolutely yeah, it's it's it's it's one of the drug 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:33.400 I mean, it's that when you when you hear about 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.760 drug interdiction forces, like like police in Rojava, they're going 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.000 after CAPTI Gone. It's a big chunk of both what 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.720 kept isis it's it's the it's the purveten, you know, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.240 the meth that Nazis took that for isis right, and 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:47.640 it was also a big chunk of how they got 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.000 their funding was was moving and the a sad regime 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.080 also gets a piece of a lot of the captivegone trade. 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.919 It continues to fund these largely these like it's the 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.719 mist insurgent groups right in the area because it's small 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.760 and it high value, and like Roberts also to give 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.359 it to their fighters. This is very common, like around 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.640 the world, We discuss this in Miandmar too, right, that 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.400 the military there take something else called yabba. But these 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.680 kind of meth derivatives are very common and they're very 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.960 commonly sold. That's how a lot of these non state 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.480 armed groups get money to buy stuff. Right. So when 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.960 we're talking about drug interdiction, it's not done in a vacuum. 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.760 It's not done because they think that necessarily that drugs 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:32.760 are bad or that you know, there's some kind of 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.200 moral failure that comes from the use of these substances. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.360 It's because it allows funding for groups that are trying 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.720 to kill people on the ground. So like interdicting the 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.440 drugs is part of an anti terrorism operation that allows 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.320 people to live safely, which is what they deserve after 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.920 ten plus years of war in that area. So twenty 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.200 nine people is a lot of people, right, twenty nine 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.960 anti narcotics assay issues is a lot of the people 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.000 who do that job. It's going to make it signific 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.560 currently harder for them to continue doing that job, which 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.160 means it's going to make it significantly easier for those 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.720 armed groups to get funding. Right. It's also so while 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.000 I was there, there was a massive funeral for these 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:17.720 people right, every town, every settlement across where Java has 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:23.120 lost somebody in that strike, right, So in Kambishloh, in Kabani, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.200 in Alhasaka, like all these places had big funerals because 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.680 you know, three or four or ten people came from 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.559 that town, and like that's I saw a little girl 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.320 like going to her dad's funeral, right, like a little 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.720 girl holding a picture of her dad. And it's pretty 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:40.880 fucked up. Like it's hard for that not to affect you, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.680 especially as like these people weren't fighting anyone, they weren't 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.160 attacking anyone, right, they were just they were taking a training. 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.800 They were taking an anti narcotics training at night, and 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.600 sixty of them were gathering. It's building. Twenty nine were killed, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.120 twenty eight rain injured. And it's in the sort of 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:02.360 furthest northeast part of northern Eassyria, but around a town 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:06.800 called Derek, which is on the board of at al Malkay. Derek. Yeah, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.719 probably my pronunciation is asked al Malachaia might say on 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.520 the map if you're looking at a Google map, so 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.160 you're trying to work out what it is. Lots of 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.200 these places. The reason they will have two names is 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:18.520 cored edition and Arabic. 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:18.800 Right. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.400 So, like under the previous Sad regime, like Arabic was 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.160 the sort of language that people were enforced to speak 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.560 and use, and now under the self administration, people tend 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.400 to use Kurdish, and they tend to use a Latin 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.920 script as opposed to an Arabic script. Right, So that's 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.320 why you'll see two names very often you're looking on 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.560 a map, But like twenty nine is only you know, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:46.640 there's nineteen other people, mostly civilians, right, who were killed, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.720 and two million people are now living without power, without 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:55.280 water and without these basic services, which in turn will 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.520 result in more death. Right, more people will die because 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.360 they don't have access to those things which are life sustaining, right, 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:07.000 old people, young people, sick people. Both things are the 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:11.560 very basics of sustaining human life, and so without them, 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.839 things are going to get a lot harder. I want 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.000 to talk a little bit about like where these drone 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.839 strikes happened, because largely aside from the one of their age, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.960 they weren't at like large groups of people or buildings. Instead, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:32.160 they were like deliberately targeting infrastructure. So of the ones 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.200 that I saw and the ones that I read about, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.880 they targeted like an electricity substation in one case, they 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.400 targeted a lot of water facilities, right, like water pumping stations, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.760 et cetera, that allow people to get water, a cooking 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.679 gas plant, which it's pretty obvious what that does, right, 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.440 It allows people to get bottles of gas to cook 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.520 their food, and a lot of oil in destructures. So 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:01.000 I saw a few of those called like donkeys, you know, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.000 the things that go up and down, yeah, using. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.400 I don't know the word, but the little crane things. 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.439 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the like the the things you can 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.000 see if you drive through Bakersfield. 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:12.920 I'm sure there's a name. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:18.800 Yeah. Are they oiled derricks? Yeah? Someone someone googled the 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.560 name of the nodding dog they pumps jack? 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.079 Is that no? 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.840 Yeah, that's that's the first sounds like like a dude 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.760 who goes to the gym a lot, Yeah, broke and 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:31.360 pump jecked. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.520 I mean it is called the an oil donkey as well. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.520 So you were, yeah, nodding donkey pumps. Yeah's thought they 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.320 were noding donkeys. Okay, yeah, that's that's that's a phrase 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.360 we're going with. So you could see a lot of 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.320 these that were like knocked over on their side, right 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.240 that had been drawn struck, and then you could see 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.240 others that were just knocked out because the power to 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.680 them had been knocked out. So obviously that's not only 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.240 a major revenue source, but also like that is how 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.199 people in the region get fuel, right, so like it's 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.760 going to be harder for them to get diesels, going 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.959 to be harder for them to drive around. People already 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.360 don't drive around a lot because a lot of the 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:14.079 drone strikes on people in the Yepagay Yepja, so that 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.160 the People's Defense Forces and Women's Defense Forces, lots of 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.800 drun strikes have happened when those people are driving their cars. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.839 When they get in a car, so it can be 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.200 quite hairy driving. And so a lot of people were 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.240 driving to like I drive around, but that's just one 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.240 of the areas of risk for people. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:38.000 Right. Of the people killed, thirty fives a eleven were 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.520 civilians and two SEFs, So most of these were either 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:45.120 internal security or civilians. And I think Robert you were 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.400 Robert and I spoke well while I was there, and 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.160 Robert made a good point about how this like enables 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:55.480 these non state armed groups like either ISIS or like. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.720 HID that My main concern for you while you were 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.800 there was not the you would get hit in an 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:05.920 air strike, but it was that because of the damage 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.520 done to the security forces as a result of the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.240 Turkish are strikes, you would it would, it would. There's 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.000 there's always been is as cells there right that they're 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.480 they're they've never gotten rid of all of them. And 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.040 periods where the A and E. S self administration is 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.880 under attack are the periods in which it's most dangerous 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.760 because it provides there's less security forces, you know, watching everything. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.240 People in general are are outless, which provides cover for 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.240 for some of these groups that may want to do 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:35.040 like a kidnapping. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.959 Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's not a place where a 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:42.439 lot of I guess folks who look like memory. That 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:44.440 was a concern for us, and like it's a concern 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.680 for these people too. Write they still do car bombs 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.800 in derizor not, you know that they think still kill civilians. Yeah, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.120 they roll up IIS people on a probably weekly basis, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.880 and people are interested in getting more information both the 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.079 drone strikes and about what they call sleeper cells. The 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.760 Java Information Center very nice people. They have a good website. 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.480 It's Jarva Information Center Org, which they produce monthly reports 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.199 on both things, so that will give more information on 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.920 those things. That would be a good time to pivot 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:23.040 to adverts. But I've got all that is. Do you 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.880 know who else provides great services? I don't think we can. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.000 I don't reasonably make that claim. 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.280 The products and services that support this podcast here they are. 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:48.920 We're back and we are discussing torone strikes North Asyria, 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:50.920 I guess not just from North Asyria, like these also 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.920 happen up around Slimani sort of many if you're looking 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.240 on the map, depends again on the language. Right, those 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:05.840 have happened again against KSEK, which is like the Kurdistan 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.920 Communities Council, So that would be the I guess the 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:16.720 the that if you look at like Syria, Iran, Turkey 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.760 and Iraq as different countries, all of which have some 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.920 administrative control over the nation of Kurdish people, right, Kurdish 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:27.560 people live in all four countries, and they live in 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.680 other countries too. Of course, then the movements in each 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.960 of those countries are subsidiary to the k c K, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.960 and so some of those KTK folks are up in Solimani. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.680 So like that there will be drowne strikes there, and 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.400 that's that's far inside Iraqi Kurdistan. Right, You're you're a 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.000 long way from the border there, and that's that's what 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:54.800 these drone strikes. I guess. The drone strikes allow Turkish 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.240 intelligence in the Turkish military to target people much much 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.440 further inside with with a little consequent or risk on 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:06.280 their own. Right, these drones are largely not being targeted because, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.680 certainly in an Ees, the Autonomous Administration in North Eastyria, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:12.920 they don't have the means to target them, right. The 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.480 United States hasn't supplied them with the weapons that they 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.400 would need to shoot down those drones, which I think 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.400 brings me onto the role of the US in this 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.400 and I guess, more broadly, the role of the coalition 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.240 in this case. Coalition is a coalition to defeat ISIS. Right, 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:35.880 it's made up of dozens of countries, the UK, the US, Germany, 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:42.080 lots of other Western I guess countries broadly, and countries 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:43.640 in that part of the world too, like I think 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:48.240 Iraq is part of it. Certainly, like Iraqi, Kurdistan has 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.800 done their own operations against ISIS sleeper cells, peshmurger and 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.600 like everywhere you go you go through pesh mega checkpoints. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.760 Like I was going through an area where they had 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:03.280 arrested and isis member the day before, So like it's 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.000 they'll be getting you out of the car, you know, 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.520 going through your bags, looking through your stuff. Right, So 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.400 that's all part of the same operation. But the US 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.200 has a base in a place called Alhassaka, which again 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:15.639 you can look up on the map, right, it's a 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.119 little west. I'm trying to land up my compass here, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.720 a little west of Camishlo, which is a capital of 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:27.200 the region, and the US pretty much US troops don't 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.520 do a great amount of leaving that base. It's fair 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.600 to say they'll come out in helicopters. They were going 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:39.359 out like sort of supporting SDF patrols in the Ahaska region, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:40.640 but they were supporting them from the air. 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:40.879 Right. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.760 They generally aren't going out and about like with people 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.560 on the ground, talking to people unless it's a specific mission, 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.639 which they do sometimes you can if people are interested 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.159 in like the US presence. It's called Operation Inherent Resolve, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.359 And they have a Twitter account whether sometimes post themselves 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.760 doing things. But what they don't do is protect that 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.439 and So the US and the Autonomous Administration are allies 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.520 in this fight against ISIS, right, but they are only 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.359 allied in this fight against ISIS. The US is not 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.520 supporting them in defending themselves from drone strikes or like 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.399 ensuring that a civilian population is protected from those attacks. 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.760 So the US has the capacity to shoot down these drones, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.800 and they prove that by shooting one down last week 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.440 or the week before. I'm a little bit jet lagged, 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.600 a bit bangledo on time, but I think it was 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.920 last week the US shut down a Turkish drones that 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.720 came out two weeks ago for when this is airing, Yes, yeah, sure, 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:42.960 good point. Yeah. So yeah, two weeks ago the United 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.399 States shut down and F sixteen shut down a Turkish drone. 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.160 So specifically, it was a drone called an a Kinji, 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.120 which is a newer variant of the Bairaktar drone. We've 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.359 spoken about these drones before, right, they're the drones that 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.239 people like, I know, you can go on actually by 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.880 a stuffy version of these drones, which rights that's concerning. 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.560 Yeah, it's really dystopian and crazy. 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.200 I don't like it. Yeah, I do not like it either. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.080 I think it illustrates the way the war in Ukraine 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.160 has become like a football match for some people, yeah yes, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:20.840 or like a film where like I just want to 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:21.480 reinforce it. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:22.800 Like it's turned into like fandom. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.800 Yeah yes, yeah, I think that's an excellent way of 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.960 putting it. Garasay, Like, it's not cool when anyone gets 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:33.639 fucking drone struck. It's not cool when like everyone in 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.240 an area spends every night worrying if death is going 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.639 to come from the sky at some point, right Like, 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.280 the effect of these drones trucks isn't just on the 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.040 people killed, or the people injured, or even the infrastructure. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.439 The effect is on every single person worrying what's going 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.000 to happen tonight? Right Like, And I can speak to 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.639 a tiny part of that experience. Right Nothing compared to 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:57.160 what people are living there have gone through at all, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.320 But it's a concern every time it gets dark, you know, 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.000 well it it's tonight then, I especially for the rural 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:04.920 folks who might be living in a rural area but 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.440 near to a substation, or near to one of those 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.480 nodding donkeys or other infrastructure which has been targeted, or 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:13.639 near a cooking gas plant, right those things I can 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:18.080 imagine explode with quite some force. They can't leave, right, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.119 they can't just up and and not live near any infrastructure. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.879 Infrastructures what allows the place to be survivable for civilians. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.760 So they just have to live with this constant fear. 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.960 And it's very odd to see that and then simultaneously 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.600 see this this sort of deification of drone strikes that 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.840 are happening in Ukraine and like this, you know, people 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:44.880 with dog dressed as Napoleon Twitter avatars, Yeah, cheering someone's 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:45.480 kid dying. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.640 Yeah, I mean throughout all of the kind of new 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.960 conflicts we've had the past five years, like the and 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.879 especially the past like two three years, Like the idea 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.840 of like politics as fandom has produced some of the 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:06.960 like most like inhumane, gross aspects of how people have 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.800 been like consuming social media and just the sheer. It's 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.359 like people forget that this is like thousands of people's actual, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.160 like human lives that they're like meaming about, and it's 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.760 it just it just becomes just they talk about it 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:23.439 in the same way they talk about like a Marvel 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.240 movie or like a star sport like it's it's it's yeah, 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.600 or sports like it's it it it it's like this 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:35.640 weird like gamified. It allows you to to approach these 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.800 things from a just a from a very separate perspective 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.879 when you're when you're viewing it from like this fandom angle, 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.119 I think. But politics is fandom in general. I think 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.120 it's gotten a whole lot worse since the Trump era, 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:48.200 YE had, you know, like that's where we had like 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.359 resistance libs that were like copying off some of the 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:54.879 stuff from the New Star Wars trilogy, which is kind 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:56.920 of the inspiration for a lot of their stuff. We 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.480 got Nazis doing a whole bunch of politics as fandom 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.480 as well. It just creates like it's it's it's like 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.760 this team sports like fandom thing that is just pervate. 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.399 It's it's it's it's seeped into like almost every single 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.840 aspect of like not just politics, but now like conflict 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.000 and like geopolitics. 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:17.200 It's like whoever has the best branding is the one 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.600 that has the best chance. 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.760 Yeah, and it's I don't know, it's it's it's disturbing 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:24.120 to watch. 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.040 I I don't know how to like counter counter it, 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.640 because it feels like the more you engage the further 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:35.160